Dear Friend:

I am deeply committed to ensuring that our troops who have been injured in Iraq or Afghanistan are afforded the best possible medical treatment, and I have worked extensively toward this end over the past few years. Recently, I was able to secure funding through the Defense Appropriations bill for an innovative brain research program that holds hope for many injured service members.

The Veterans Health Research Institute, based at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, has spearheaded innovative research for service members and veterans, including neuroimaging, neuropsychiatry, and basic neuroscience.  This research science is targeted at the diagnosis, prevention, and management of conditions often found in veterans such as neurodegenerative diseases, brain and spinal cord injuries, and neuropsychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The $4 million appropriated for the Veterans Health Research Institute will be used to learn more about the brain and how it may be impacted by combat-related injury.  More specifically, funding will be used to learn more about how to predict and prevent combat-related damage to the brain and the nervous system; to better understand PTSD and who might suffer from it; to learn more about ways to diagnose and treat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia; and to improve basic science on strategies to treat neural injury and traumatic brain injury.

Our troops often face grave injury, and many of the worst injuries involve brain damage.  Because of advances in battlefield medical treatment, many people are surviving injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan that would have proved fatal in previous conflicts.  However, we need better science to help these injured troops survive and heal.  I am pleased to have worked to obtain this important funding for the Veterans Health Research Institute, and I look forward to the medical advances that are sure to follow.

Sincerely,